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How managers' perceptions about dynamic complexity change: sensemaking catalyzed by shock and surprise

Paul Langley (Westminster Business School, University of Westminster, London, UK)
Alison Rieple (Department of Business Strategy, University of Westminster, London, UK)

Management Decision

ISSN: 0025-1747

Article publication date: 10 November 2023

78

Abstract

Purpose

This empirical study uncovers emotional sensemaking factors that cause changes in management perceptions about wicked strategic problems under dynamic complexity. These perception changes improve understanding of, and solutions to, the wicked problem.

Design/methodology/approach

Senior managers from three large organizations in different sectors participated in gaming simulation workshops. The strategic issues at stake were intractable and divisive. Qualitative methods captured participants' perceptions of the problems and the dynamic complexity that they faced and how they changed.

Findings

Flawed management perceptions were revised as sensemaking processes were catalyzed by emotions of shock/surprise that came from experiencing unexpected stakeholder conduct within a simulation. The plausibility of the conduct was strengthened because managers were role-playing stakeholders. The shock/surprise emotion uncoupled attachment to entrenched beliefs, leading to a willingness to revise the flawed perceptions. The changed perceptions created new insights for a solution to the wicked problem.

Practical implications

Practical implications are how management practitioners can improve the tackling of wicked strategic problems through the use of shock and surprise in a gaming simulation.

Originality/value

This research extends theory on the role of emotions in sensemaking under dynamic complexity. The authors uncover how a hierarchy of managers' emotions used in sensemaking explains the catalytic effect of the shock and surprise of unexpected stakeholder conduct on revisions to their perceptions of the outcomes of the dynamic complexity.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Editor and Associate Editor and two anonymous referees. Furthermore consulting colleagues, including Andrew Doman, Maurice Glucksman, Andreas Kaempf, Hendrik Sabert and Olivier Sibony.

Citation

Langley, P. and Rieple, A. (2023), "How managers' perceptions about dynamic complexity change: sensemaking catalyzed by shock and surprise", Management Decision, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/MD-03-2023-0345

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2023, Emerald Publishing Limited

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